CKFR Checkfree Corp (MM)

CheckFree and Selesta Partner to Bring New E-Billing and Financial Transaction Workflow Solutions to Italy ATLANTA and LONDON, July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CheckFree Software, a division of CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ:CKFR), today announced a new agreement with Selesta, S.p.A. one of Italy's leading IT software and systems integration providers, to market CheckFree's electronic billing and financial transaction management solutions. Selesta identified an increasing demand from the Italian business and consumer markets for both Internet-based bill delivery and payment solutions and risk-reducing reconciliation and securities settlement technology. As a result, the company recently established two new business lines to harness these growing opportunities, and has chosen CheckFree as its technology partner in both markets. Under the terms of the partnership, Selesta will represent four different products from CheckFree Software. CheckFree i-Series is the world's leading electronic billing and statement delivery solution for banks, credit card providers, telecommunications, utilities, manufacturing, logistics and other high volume billers. CheckFree MessageBroker is the de facto standard solution for financial messaging middleware. CheckFree TradeFlow TPM automates securities confirmation and settlement workflow and exception management. CheckFree RECON-Plus Frontier provides enterprise-wide reconciliation and matching. Working together, these CheckFree Software solutions provide a global straight through processing (STP) environment for payments, trades and other financial transactions for enhanced operational efficiency and corporate risk management. Selesta has a twenty-year reputation for representing only best-of-breed solutions and has developed long-term relationships with customers from among Italy's top 200 companies including banks, government and large corporate organisations. Adriano Prefumo, President of Selesta, said, "Selesta has been very impressed with the work done by CheckFree already in Italy, at a major investment management service provider, using the TradeFlow products for order routing and error reduction, on a nationwide initiative to connect billers and banks in Italy with CheckFree i-Series software." Says Mr. Prefumo: "Business rules are becoming increasingly international for e-billing, financial messaging, reconciliation and other major types of applications. It therefore makes good sense, both from a technology and economic point of view, to work with the international leader across these markets." Sean Feeney, executive vice president and general manager, CheckFree Software, comments: "The relationship with Selesta enables CheckFree to strengthen its presence in the Italian market and provide multiple product lines through a single organisation that is respected within the financial services and billing industries." About CheckFree ( http://www.checkfreecorp.com/ ) CheckFree (NASDAQ:CKFR) is a provider of financial electronic commerce services and products. Founded in 1981 and celebrating its 23rd year in e- commerce, CheckFree is comprised of three divisions: Electronic Commerce, Software, and Investment Services. CheckFree launched the first fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution in 1997. In the quarter ended March 31, 2004, more than 13 million consumers initiated online payments through services offered by CheckFree's Electronic Commerce division. Electronic billing and payment is available through more than a thousand financial services organizations, including banks, brokerage firms, Internet portals and personal financial management (PFM) software. At these sites, consumers are able to electronically receive and pay essentially all the bills most common to a U.S. household. CheckFree delivers 22.5 million e-bills each quarter. CheckFree Investment Services provides a broad range of investment management services to thousands of financial institutions nationwide. The division's clients manage nearly 1.5 million portfolios totaling more than $900 billion in assets. CheckFree's Software division provides solutions through three operating units: CheckFree ACH Solutions, CheckFree Financial and Compliance Solutions (CFACS), and CheckFree i-Solutions. CheckFree ACH Solutions provides software and services that are used to process more than two-thirds of the nation's nine billion Automated Clearing House payments, while CFACS provides reconciliation, financial messaging, workflow and compliance software and services to more than 600 organizations in the banking, brokerage, investment management, insurance and credit card industries, among others. CheckFree i-Solutions is the leading provider of e- billing and e-statement software and services for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business applications. About Selesta ( http://www.selesta.com/ ) Selesta S.p.A. is one of the Italian successes (of international scope), playing a major role in the world of Information Technology, especially in the large enterprise environment. Currently, the company is subdivided into Business Units in Italy: Networks & Systems Management, Business Applications Support Systems, Applications for Integrations, Corporate Business and Key Accounts, and made up of joint-stock companies like: Selesta Ingegneria, Selesta Security Systems and Selesta Ars. Selesta S.p.A. stands out on the IT market for its ability to understand the specific evolving needs of its clients and to propose technologies, solutions and innovative and leading edge projects with the uniqueness of "dedication" with the certainty of reaching the objectives set. Selesta S.p.A. operates in Italy from the head office and historical seat in Genoa and the offices of Milan, Rome, Turin, Vicenza and Bologna. At the international level the branch offices are: Madrid, Lisbon and Paris. Certain of CheckFree's statements in this press release are not purely historical, and as such are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements regarding management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations or projections of the future. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the various risks inherent in CheckFree's business, and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in CheckFree's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including CheckFree's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2003 (filed September 15, 2003), Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2003 (filed November 13, 2003), Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2003 (filed February 12, 2004), and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2004 (filed May 14, 2004). One or more of these factors have affected, and could in the future affect CheckFree's business and financial results in future periods, and could cause actual results to differ materially from plans and projections. There can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made in this press release will prove to be accurate, and issuance of such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by CheckFree, or any other person, that the objectives and plans of CheckFree will be achieved. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are based on information presently available to management, and CheckFree assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. DATASOURCE: CheckFree Corporation CONTACT: Media relations, Judy DeRango Wicks, +1-678-375-1595, or , or Investor relations, Tina Moore, +1-678-375-1278, or , both of CheckFree Corporation Web site: http://www.checkfreecorp.com/

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